Thursday, October 5, 2017

Layers of narrative, below. At the front end of learning Garden Design professionally, mid-20's, this type of garden, below, equaled the type of home it fronted. At that front end, this garden was also too simple, too rigid, too formal, too boring, too lacking. Oh my what 3 decades have wrought.

Pic, above, here.
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Now I see the narrative of this garden as pure joy, wisdom and a proscenium for your life. Infinite scope for the imagination. Importantly, easy to maintain. No drama, your life, fully, enough.
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More, a Garden Design for any era, any architecture.
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"The best of life is life lived quietly where nothing happens but our calm journey thru' the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.-John McGahern".
Garden & Be Well, XO T
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We are back from 10 days in Maine with a bit of Boston. Portland, Freeport, Kennebunkport, Bar Harbor and more.
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One particular morning, staying at a B&B, still a private home built ca. 1880, on the shore in Bar Harbor, I arose early in excitement, knowing the coffee was awaiting, and exactly where I was going to sit and fully live. The owner was awake and about, and as I carried my coffee to the porch, an older gentleman, already sitting and fully living, with a great deep voice said, "Good morning." I replied in kind. We two continued our full living in the greatest of silence, that symphony of Nature and ocean.
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An hour passed, the owner came outside to ask if we were ok. The gentleman replied, "We are sharing a deep companionable silence." She left. We continued that deep companionable silence. A few minutes later Beloved arrived, soon breakfast would be served and the day had begun its new threads. "Take joy", Tasha Tudor signed off with. Yes, indeed.
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Early morning view, Bar Harbor, Shore Path Cottage.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

A trade article I read earlier this year, European sourced, blamed the lack of young'ish people gardening upon 'older' people being poor examples of gardeners. More than missing the boat, greater than missing it by a galaxy, they shot past our universe, to be wrong.
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Whatever ! Not going there now.
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Isolating Garden Design templates, you know, the ones that keep cropping up. (Sorry, too amusing, that horrible pun, it wasn't intended.)
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Garden Design templates, all are centuries old, most are BCE.
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What, oh what, to name them?
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Continually, I'm doing Garden Design work, with no name. Tara Turf, for example.
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I came to Garden Design, same as most of the herd. It's a pack animal belief system, especially in USA. "What do I want to do? I want this & this & that & etc. Oh, I love that, it will be wonderful in the front yard." Wilderness years. Money & effort, no results, aside from visual proof, arrogance, with zero use of intellect. Most, alas, never set foot into the wilderness years. No desire, I get that. Those getting into the wilderness, never quite pull themselves out.
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A tiny few, decide to leave the wilderness and hire a Garden Designer. When I decided to leave the wilderness, zero funding. Off to college for a 2nd degree, this time, horticulture. Total bamboooozzzzzle was that USA horticulture degree. Next, off to study historic gardens across Europe for decades. Finally. True beginning, learning Garden Design.
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Back to those Garden Design templates.
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You're looking at one, below. Every element of a garden room is here, sky, ceiling, walls, chair rail, flooring, focal point, flow, function.
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Gravel & Green.

Pic, above, here.
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Wonder lies in each template. Intuitively, you know, "I can do this." Better, your mind/heart, understands and morphs the Gravel & Green into shapes, plantings, focal point, perfect, and original to you and your site's needs.
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Now, this moment, whether you like the Gravel & Green template or not, mentally eradicate your existing Garden Design, replace it with Gravel & Green.
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Fun, yes?
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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BCE? Never saw, BCE, until I went to Israel and did the Foot Steps of Jesus tour. Two weeks of wonder & joy. Love Israel. Shock of seeing Jerusalem, from Mount of Olives, and realizing the West Bank is merely a Landscape Architecture construct. Going to a new settlement and realizing it is literally, Guns and Roses. Building new homes upon rock, bringing everything it takes to grow plants. Building settlements is Horticulture. Landscape Architecture & Horticulture in this humbling biblical place, from its earliest settling. Ironic, exactly where G*d first placed people, in a garden. Earth. BCE, Before Christ's Era.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Attracted to the marvelous sliding doors, below, the wood stoop and small planters had me send this fabulous home & garden to my Pinterest Changes board. Lastly, a 3rd issue from garden to kitchen for the Changes board. Especially a home with young'ish children and these gorgeous interior wood floors.
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A mini Garden Design course in 2 photos.
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Do you see all 3 changes immediately?
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I'll give you a moment to look at both pics carefully. There is an easy inexpensive solution for the stoop, and a better, not inexpensive solution for the stoop. At the open sliding door threshold is a minor 4th issue. See the easy fix for issue 4?
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Classic mistakes, below. Human nature ! At the front end, before getting a Horticulture degree, then traipsing Europe for 2+ decades studying historic gardens I made the same mistakes too. Once you know what the Garden Design mistakes are, your eye is trained to see them, correct them, easily, every time.
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Of course there may be zero mistakes, below, solutions could already be designed, just not installed. A likely scenario if you take a tour of the interior, here.
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Look at the pair of pics, below, again. Got your Garden Design solutions?

Pics, above, here.
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Change #4, the door mats inside & outside should match. The tight space will enlarge, flow, and become more of a 'foyer' between inside/outside instead of the current abrupt divide. My choice would be a pair of door mats, large, similar in looks to the existing mat inside the home already.
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Change #3, transition from beautiful stone terrace to gravel to wood stoop to interior of home. This change makes me smile, I made the same mistake as a garden designer in my 20's. Matching stone from the terrace should be installed into the gravel transitioning to the wood stoop. Why? Significantly reduces amount of gravel stuck in shoes, or paws, to be tracked inside, and gouging/scratching that beautiful wood floor.
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Change #2, Dinky is Stinky, need much larger pots at those sliding doors, and wider apart, setting them left/right off the wood stoop. Remove 2 bushes at right of wood stoop, replace their planting bed with more gravel.
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Change #1, will start with cheap/easy do it today. Stain the wood stoop same color as sliding doors. The house is much too elegant for this wood stoop left over from the set of F Troop. A more expensive change to the wood stoop, replace it with a single slab of stone, custom cut the same or a bit deeper. Wood stoop vs. stone landing. Already the verbage is a nicer story.
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Again, seeing the interior of this home, I think the 'Change' layers I've mentioned are already on their to-do list. Their attention to detail quite wonderful.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Put that green extension cord under the gravel. I know you already thought that. A funny thing about gardening, the small victories. Just getting the cord buried is a big deal, having the door mats match.....

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Pic, above, here.
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Do you know what the smallest detail is, above? Should I wait till tomorrow for the answer? Perhaps natter on, giving you time. Lanterns, above, are an odd move, but perhaps they truly needed the light or yet another ubiquitous stylist input. The water, above, is a mirror and slow mesmerizing burble. Reminds me of Sir Roy Strong mentioning every garden needs a mirror of the sky.
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Smallest detail they got right, above? Gravel lapping to the tree, no border edging. Of course, if this were my garden ahead of having a fabulous photographer I would brush the gravel with my fingers, slightly away from the trunks, more of an illusion the trunks are 'arising' instead of looking so 'plopped' in.
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Exactly the types of things discussed in depth with my Garden Design friends. Someone must live this type of life, and it's us!
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What's not to adore about peers putting their spin on it?
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Your spin on the garden, above?
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Garden Design Rule for the lapping gravel? Contrast. Plenty of formality with coping around gravel and styling, going rustic with the lapping gravel is the contrast.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Notice the small evergreen hedging, below, along the gravel? Thought low hedging was done as a garden design element, in the beginning, as in at least before the era of Christ, literally. Then, I had a client with a cutting garden. I did the classic potager shapes, large boxwoods at all the corners, brick edging, gravel paths, but no low hedging, wanted it easy to walk into for cutting flowers. Unfortunately, it was easy for the chickens to walk into also. Where was the best place on the chickens 300 acre farm to scratch & kick & toss dirt onto gravel paths? The decision to hedge-in the cutting garden beds was made and planted. It worked, chickens don't walk into the cutting garden beds anymore. And, we had a good laugh, realizing where the garden design conceit came from, boxing-in plantings with low hedges.

Pic, above, here.
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An odd thing about chickens and old gardens, are old garden books. In all my years collecting old garden books, none write about chickens in the garden. Interesting.
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Garden & Be Well, XOT

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Whimsy, below, in the metaphor of sanctity. What? Taking the choice, below, to walk into the garden, you must bow your head, at the shrine of espaliered trees.
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Soon, hedging will shield the house from the outer world, flying buttresses, arc-boutant, to the nave within.
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Is your life worth anything less?
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Stewardship of self. In all its layers.

For good measure, several ball rooms planted into the back yard, above.

The long hallway, above at right, a promenade, lit in the manner of le jardin rustique. With hedging at the backyard too, another nave, a double cathedral built,
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Someone, at the top of their game, above.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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We are still tending structural outdoor necessities at our ca. 1900 American farmhouse garden. Pouring more gravel, putting in paths, lighting, plantings, must wait. One of those 'necessities' a well. Beloved has worked with the well diggers many times during his construction career, he trusts them. Good, fine. My concern is flagrantly obvious. Where will they find water? How will it affect designing the garden?
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We chose similar lights, above, for a renovated shed. Once installed, I knew those lights would be perfect for the rest of the garden, on posts along pathways. Imagine my surprise seeing the pic, above.
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What a day I had on the old Kubota tractor yesterday. Wounded pride, newbie mistakes. Hilarious being an 'expert' and embarking upon a new learning curve in the garden. Details sketchy, pride still ruffled.
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Pics from here.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

From the 1st time studying historic gardens in Europe over 20 years ago, gravel changed every thought about a 'lawn'.
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Perhaps it was coming from a region of USA with ubiquitous patchy backyard 'turf' lawns.
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Gravel, below, set with a top rate template of plantings too. No worries what the plantings are, below, use the best plants in your zone fitting the appropriate sun/shade, size, foliage evergreen/deciduous.
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Best plants? Don't know best plants for your zone, USA? Go to your county/state/extension office online. Typical mission statement for the Extension Service,

"Mission

Our mission is to extend lifelong learning to Georgia citizens through unbiased, research-based education in agriculture, the environment, communities, youth and families.

UGA Extension offers educational programs, assistance, and materials to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, or handicap status. "

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Your county Extension Service will have a listing of the best trees/shrubs/groundcovers/vines. Motivation is for the proper plantings, not to sell you something.
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Knowing the best plants for your specific location gives you liberty to copy good gardens world wide.
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Don't feel comfortable choosing the best plants for your garden plan? Take a picture of what you want, perhaps below, and ask your Extension Service agent, or their volunteer Master Gardener to choose for you. This service is paid for thru your tax dollar.

Pic, above, here.
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Choosing gravel, align with color that may already be used with your home's exterior, or interior. If there is a predominate stone in your location, choose it. Measure square footage you want to cover with gravel, 2.5" thick and place your order. The stone source you order from will turn your square footage/depth into 'yards'. Small gravel is best, more residential. Large gravel is commercial for parking lots or building construction.
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If you're fighting a poor turf lawn in your backyard, consider gravel.
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Garden & Be Well, XO
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My 1st phone call to Extension Service was ca. 1985. Going to the mailbox I noticed a vile odor. Exploring, discovered ooze at the base of a large oak. Their diagnosis? Slime flux. Solution? Poor a mix of clorox/water on it. It worked, and I'm still friends with the Extension agent helping me. Weirdly, he's retiring next year. How is that possible? He's also the 1st person ever asking me to speak. He created a new layer in my career. In return I've never said 'no' when he's called asking me to speak for Extension. About 6-7 years ago he asked me to speak on pollinators. A disaster I thought, but said 'yes'. Pollinators? Boring. How was I to know it would become one of my most requested lecture titles? He called earlier this month, one of our 'peeps' is moving back to Georgia. A young woman we watched grow in her horticulture career and are both so proud of. She took a lot of my seminars, always asked the best questions, a great can-do attitude. She moved away for a huge huge huge job, but Georgia family/friends are pulling her home. He asked if I would give her a reference. As if !!

Monday, May 23, 2016

Pic, above, here.
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Using the 3 elements, above, of garden design, plan your garden. A serious landscape, in vanishing threshold with interiors of your home, expanding lifestyle, all with ease, beauty, joy while amplifying your personal aesthetic.
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Don't know the 3 elements, above?
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Ceilings, walls, floors. Put another way, trees, shrubs, groundcovers. Another description, foyer, dining room, living room. Yes, now you are seeing the trinity of elements in the design, above.
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Two types of ceiling, above. Can you label both? Sky & trees. Three types of flooring, above, low meadow, gravel, a chevron pattern. Three types of walls, tall shrubs, medium shrubs, contrasting texture shrubs.
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Pond is a nice focal point viewed from the foyer, yet equal in use to both living room & dining room. .
Focal point on plinth, on axis with don't-know-from-this-pic.
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Never thought about a garden like this for your home? This garden will take your further, faster, lasting longer, than most other types of gardens.
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Starting and ending points for this garden remain 180 from a garden beginning, "I want hydrangeas, peonies and..."
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

The Duchess, below, was keen on many outdoor activities, in one of her books, can't remember which, she mentioned how cold/wet/mucky some pursuits were but the game was on for all included, Show No Discomfort.

Before pie, we'll walk the new gravel paths. Today, temps are freezing, winds gusting to 20mph, and we will do our best to show-no-discomfort.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics from Sotheby's . The Style Saloniste has a bit more about the Duchess, here.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Great example of historic/classic garden design in modernist disguise, below.

Don't have a rural property? Your home is a classic 60's ranch in a sea of other 60's ranches? Yes, you can have this landscape in your front yard.
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How? What exchanges to make?
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The meadow/woodland, above, are the street & neighbors homes, so, block that view, keeping the rest of this incredible landscape design. Behind the stone/cement walls, plant an evergreen hedge. Choose for zone, height, drought tolerance, resistance to insects/disease, and deer.
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This landscape, above, is pure jewelry for a 60's ranch house in comparison to their builder installed ubiquitous foundation plantings long ago pruned into green meat balls & meat loafs.
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More, depending on the size of your site, this design, above, has plenty of room for a golf cart to zip around.
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Most odd, copying this landscape design, above, into a 60's ranch front yard provides the same elements of space, calm, and beauty as in the larger setting, above. Promise. It's one of those odd things you learn after decades of designing gardens. The sky provides different types of magic, and confers 'size' to small spaces.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic from Gardenista.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Perhaps my little stories about gardening should be set within proper context, of their owners. Every garden designed demands honoring its site, architecture of the home, and lives of the owners. More than the mundane of plants liked, features wanted or where the main views from inside the house are, well designed gardens must travel with the owner's hopes & dreams, salve arrows & defeats, enrich beyond expectation. And more.
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Last week, I went to an unexpected new client. Friend of a client's garden I was at, she phoned & laughingly told my client she should bring me to her house when done, if I had time. We did.
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Miss Unexpected owns an unexpected home. Divorced/working, children, she rented a home as a base while looking for the 'perfect' new home. Her landlord called, the rental house was being sold. One child was very ill, she had zero time/energy to move again. She bought the rental.
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Interiors mostly renovated, the landscape ripe for its turn. A modest home, a covered/screened porch had been added at some point. Not cheaply made, alas, poorly designed. If a group of psychiatrists needs a setting to guarantee depression for all who enter, for purposes of testing new methods of healing, this is the space.
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Trying hard to salvage, at minimum, the roof, I could not. Best plan for the existing screened porch, dumpster in the driveway, & hauled off.
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Once children are thru high-school Miss Unexpected will be moving to acreage she was raised on, and build a home. Providing me a timeline & budget. No matter the budget, one must live beautifully each day, life is not the end point, it's all the days leading there.
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Gravel. Beautiful, easy labor, cost effective.
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A kitchen door, solely, opens onto the new gravel terrace. I added another door in her family room, now, a window. Better flow, more use. Game changer for how they live in the house, and entertain.

Miss Unexpected has a slight slope in her backyard, stones, as below, must be used to edge the gravel, and ease of leveling the space.
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Pic from here.
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Minimum size for a patio terrace, 12' x 18'. Less than this, don't bother, it will hardly be used, too cramped.
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We measured & set flags for her new gravel terrace, and I added a metal shed roof over 1/2 of the new space. Ceiling fans/chandeliers, of course.
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Cost. Amazingly, with stones/gravel delivered, she can do the labor herself. She plans to, not to save money, she grew up on a farm and thrives upon the activity.
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Further away from the house, I put in a gravel terrace with a stone fire ring, and Adirondack chairs. Mom, her kids, dogs, friends who come over and that hunk of a man she's dating, have a new playground.
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Garden design with life story included, Mary Poppins completed her mission, off to another home/garden.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Chairs, below, have a choice of colors for monocoloring. Use trim color from the house, or an interior color that is prominent in the best artwork owned or from the carpet, perhaps a wall color.

Of course more needs to be done, above, in this sweet garden room.

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Vine maintenance, above, is about a month overdue. Bring a ladder to the French doors landing, with jackhammer drill, mortar screws, galvanized wire, install, finally, threading vine across top of French doors.

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Stay there, and hang the lantern, from the second step, centered above the French doors with the bottom of the lantern hanging 3 courses of bricks above the top of the French doors.

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Done with the ladder, put a level on the pot at the right of the French doors and get it level.

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Finally, use some spare bricks from home construction and raise the serving table, next to the house, 4 bricks high.

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All of these changes, are what my brain does, all of the time, driving or looking at Pinterest. My brain 'fixes' gardens. A well-honed skill.

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My brain can rest from this particular form of Garden Design OCD when camping at beach/mountains, and joyfully in my friends gardens.

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When a client garden is headed for Garden Tour it is amazing the to-do list we create for an already fabulous garden. Pages long.

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If your garden is ready for a garden tour, but you've not done one yet, I strongly encourage you to do it. Your garden will go to another level.

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You will never have been so driven in your life, promise. Aside from weeks of exhaustion and hunting/gathering, your checkbook will provide, in a manner that feels like Zen but prior to the tour felt like fear. It gets worse, you will begin new garden layers, to be finished prior to the tour, you never anticipated. Providence, supplying epiphanies and inspirations, and you will be Peasant in Chief, happy to oblige.

Kitchen view, below, Foundation for the Summer House was built into the modest swale. Neighbor's rainwater had flooded the back yard for decades. 15 minutes work with man/Caterpillar, water flows in desirable watershed management to the stream.

There is an order to installing landscapes. Here: clearing, contouring, placing paths/edging/gravel, laying sod, next, plantings.
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Another view from the kitchen, below.

Homeowner chose white for the home. Cannot wait for that phase to be completed. My Landscape Design included French doors from the terrace level, into the garden, plywood, bottom right, Of course a few windows and bricks had to be knocked out. Ironically, husbands think a Landscape Designer will waste their money on 'flowers'. The force-of-Tara is quickly realized when they see I've knocked holes into their home. Big holes. Flowers, indeed. One must see flowers easily, and get to them freely.

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Cobblestone edging is used nearer the home, rustic rubbles further away in the Wild Wood.

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Crazed week with this project. Client panicked during the process.

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Once the invasives were gone she wanted groundcovers to be planted first. No. Will trample them to oblivion with equipment/materials if that is done first. "Oh."

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Truly panicked. It's ok. The process is older than Christ's birth, no voodoo. A scientific template. Trying to direct men/equipment/materials, client created great angst for herself, and my team.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Does your garden tell me who you are? This one does, as all good gardens must.

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Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes, her sister asked, "Have you seen her house." Frances knew, she's asking, "Who is she, what is she like?"

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Hydrangeas do great in pots. Choose mopheads, PeeGee, Tardiva, Limelight, etc.
.Worried about hydrangea's brown sticks in winter? Move on from that chapter, it's too shallow for you. Good Garden Design backdrops normal changes thru the seasons in beauty.
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Focal points change by the day.

Tara Turf, above/below. Garden Design is fierce in this garden.
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Fierce? Simplicity is hard, keeping elements of the poverty cycle is hard, good Garden Design is hard.
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Getting to this iteration of his garden, I know the gardener grew through, and blew through, many life chapters. Many.
.Self -will ended. Gardenese is spoken here. A life language. More, the language of Providence.